Category Archives: Staff and Services

I’m Lucy Welch, Subject Librarian working with Alyson Edenborough and Liz Gillen to support the school of Healthcare, based in the Health Library, Cochrane Building. I will be focussing on supporting undergraduate programmes in particular so please do get in touch (WelchL@cardiff.ac.uk / 02920874717).

What do you like best about Cardiff? I’ve only been here a week but I can already give you a Top 3! I’ve been amazed by how friendly everyone I’ve met has been – I’ve felt enormously welcome. I’m also very excited to be so close to hills. Cambridge is in the fens, so flat as a pancake. Finally, Cardiff has a very competitive (and friendly!) roller derby league that I am super excited to join – the Tiger Bay Brawlers. They have a home game coming up on 16 March, so come see what all the fuss is about: http://brawlers.co.uk/games-and-events/

My background is fairly varied – I’ve worked at a fudge shop, sight-loss charity and legal aid office. However, I fell in love with libraries from a very early age and have spent the past 6 years working in libraries at the University of Cambridge. Most recently I was working as Assistant Librarian (Teaching) at the Department of Engineering Library, primarily working with undergraduates. Before this I worked as Outreach & Engagement Coordinator for the Office of Scholarly Communication, managing the University Library’s 600th anniversary events and outreach programme and as a book fetcher to name a few roles.

Anything that let me skate all the time! I’ve been roller skating with my (previously) local roller derby team, the Cambridge Rollerbillies, for over 5 years and am really keen to hit the park/ramp skating scene in Cardiff as well. Roller derby is a hugely positive female-dominated and LGBTQ-friendly space but everyone can do better and there are still big problems in terms of making our spaces more friendly and accessible to trans and non-binary skaters as well as people of colour – and this goes for skating spaces that aren’t roller derby too. I would love to be able to devote more of my time to working to help the skate scene do better for everyone.

I practically lived in the public library growing up, it was very hard having a borrowing limit! I spent most of my time in the comic books section (everything from Tintin and Asterix to superheroes and manga), but I also developed a very early passion for reading about the paranormal! One of the very first books I bought with my own money was an encyclopedia of ghosts that I still have today.

What do you enjoy reading now? Hard copy or electronic? It very much depends on the book. I’m currently re-reading one of my favourite books ever, The Roads to Sata: A 2,000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth – I read a lot of non-fiction and for whatever reason I prefer hard copy books for this. However, I still love my fiction and when it comes to that I’m much less fussed. And you can’t argue with the convenience of traveling with an e-reader – I have very vivid memories of holidays with my family as a child with an entire suitcase having to be devoted to books.

Give an instance of one of your most interesting library related queries. Not a query, but I have had to catch pigeons in the Cambridge University Library entrance hall multiple times – and let me tell you, that is a high ceiling!

Influence the future of your libraries today. Let us know your views online or in our sites by 18th March and enter a draw to win a £25 Amazon voucher and other sweet prizes! What is it like to use our services as a masters or research postgraduate?

How are we doing? What would you like to see? Where are we falling short?

The Cardiff University-based Academia Europea Hub (Wales) has overseen the compilation of a major new Evidence Review Report Food from the Oceans, which examines the question of how the ocean can help satisfy the global demand for food. The University Library Service’s BLS team made an important contribution undertaking a series of literature reviews to support the project.

Hub Manager Louise Edwards praised the team’s efforts: “one of Cardiff’s unique strengths in the European Scientific Advice Mechanism is our competence in undertaking systematic reviews for policymaking. In Food from the Oceans, our Library subject specialists undertook high-quality rapid reviews in both the natural sciences and the social sciences/humanities. Their work was recognised and appreciated by both the expert working groups and the European Commission”

Windows 10 is being rolled out to all open access computers in the library sites across campus.

Some of the main points to note are:

Documents previously saved on the desktop in windows 7 will not be carried over to Windows 10.

Bookmarks and passwords saved won’t be rolled over

Anything saved on the H: drive will be accessible- it is advised you back up all your work to this drive.

Multiple Desktops -In Windows 10 it is possible to create multiple virtual desktops by clicking the button next to the Cortana search box on the taskbar: Multiple desktops allow you to arrange lots of open windows if screen space is too small. Alt+tab can
be used to move between apps as normal and then Windows+Ctrl+left/right arrow can be used to scroll between desktops.

Where can I get more help?
Further help and assistance is available from the IT Service Desk:
Chat: Start a live chat
Email: it-servicedesk@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)29 2251 1111

Where did you live as a child?

What do you like best about Cardiff?

I love that although Cardiff is a city you are never far from the countryside, the sea or the mountains.

Where did you work before?

I had various non-library jobs, worked in shops, an engineering factory and worked in a pharmacy before I decided on a library career.

First library post was working as a Library Assistant at King’s College London. Then after my MSc I moved to Cardiff, where I worked for Friends of the Earth (Cymru) and the Welsh Assembly libraries before getting my first professional post at Cardiff University as an Assistant Subject Librarian within the Law Library. I then moved to the Bute Library as the Subject Librarian for Optometry and Pharmacy.

What are your favourite things about being a subject librarian?

The variety within the job, no day is the same and of course the great people you meet and I work with.

If you didn’t work in a library, what would be your dream job?

Studying lemurs in Madagascar. They are amazing creatures and I did my Undergraduate project on them. Not likely to happen now as I don’t think my children would cope well in the jungle.

What was the first library book you remember reading for pleasure?

I was constantly in the public library borrowing books and read a lot as a child. The Mr Men books by Roger Hargreaves were probably the first ones I borrowed.

What do you enjoy reading now?

I still get to read fun children’s books due to the age of my children and we are currently reading Mable Jones and the Doomsday book by Will Mabbitt.
I enjoy reading lots of different genres from crime & mysteries, fantasy and historical fiction to autobiographies and cook books.

What’s your name and job title?

I’m Matt Harvey, and I’m providing maternity cover for the role of Subject Librarian for Dental. I’m also a Learning Resource Officer for the library service.

What are your qualifications?

BA English Literature and Cultural Criticism, and MA Critical and Cultural Theory, from Cardiff University. Postgraduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies from Aberystwyth University.

Where did you work before?

My part-time jobs have ranged from hosing down a salad factory in full hazmat gear, to making computer games for the Trading Standards Institute. Which seems odd in hindsight.

My first library job was in my local library, during sixth form. I really liked working in such a positive environment, where the purpose was to help people find information and books for pleasure: not to sell them things.

At university, I taught students as a postgraduate tutor, and got an evening and weekend job at the Arts and Social Studies Library. After graduating, I worked in Student Support at Cardiff University and the University of South Wales, helping students finance their studies.

I returned to the Arts and Social Studies Library as a Senior Library Assistant, mainly working as an IT Support Assistant. During that time I got to set up this new thing called ‘social media’ for the library service, and also for the Journal of Information Literacy. I also completed my librarianship qualification at Aberystwyth.

Over the last few years, I have set up and run a digitisation service for the library service: checking copyright and providing scans of course readings for students. If you have anything you’d like scanned for your modules, let me know: http://bit.ly/ulslrss

I’ve just started a new post, providing maternity cover for the role of Subject Librarian for Dental. This means joining the teams at the Health Library and the Dental Library, which is very exciting! I’ll continue to run the digitisation service, with the help of a new team member. In my new role, I’m looking forward to leading workshops and teaching students: mainly information and digital literacy, with hopefully not too many questions about teeth.

My career in libraries started six years ago as a trainee subject librarian at the University of Reading. Most recently I have worked as the resource centre manager for Henley Business School, having fun leading a team responsible for designing and delivering online and face-to-face services to some 7,000 students studying across 16 international locations.

What are your qualifications?

I have an archaeology degree from Durham University, highlights of which included spending three weeks sleeping on a church floor whilst excavating a Neolithic burial chamber in Portugal, and seeing the top of my head in an episode of the BBC series Coast during an excavation at Bamburgh Castle!

After my archaeology degree I worked as a rare books cataloguer and library assistant at Durham Cathedral and it was great to be able to combine my enthusiasm for libraries, teaching, research and all things old.

In 2010 I completed my masters degree in librarianship at Northumbria University, and became a chartered librarian in 2013.

What are your favourite things about being a subject librarian?

I get hooked on finding new ways to use learning technologies to deliver library training and support, and have a long list of new tools I’m looking forward to getting to grips with!

I also love meeting, getting to know, and helping people, all things I get to do in bucket loads as a subject librarian!

What are you most looking forward to now you live in Cardiff?

I’m looking forward to joining the Long Distance Walking Association (although I’ve heard they are more extreme in Wales!), surfing at Porthcawl, and adopting another rescue greyhound to join our boy Murphy!

When I’m not outdoors, I enjoy playing the saxophone and recently joined the City of Cardiff Concert Band. This is a great community wind band made up of about 80 students and locals who meet to practice in the students union www.facebook.com/cardiffconcertband/. Look out for upcoming concerts or why not come and join!